Welcome to my blog! I blog about the historical romances I write as well as the history behind them.

The Morning After

No, not that morning after! I’m talking about the morning
after July 4th, 1776.

While for most of us, July 5th means getting on with
our lives, it meant nothing of the sort for those who founded the United States
of America. The Declaration of Independence did not mean that America was suddenly
free from British tyranny. It only set forth the reasons for the break from
Britain. The first paragraph of the Declaration makes that very clear:

When in the course of
human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of
the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of
Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires
that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

By
the signing of the Declaration, the war had already started, with the first
official engagement in Lexington Massachusetts on April 19, 1775 -known to most school children as “the shot
heard round the world.” (Do kids today still learn this? I hope so!)

I
love the Declaration because it’s not some fluffy piece of poetic drivel. Yes,
Jefferson could have been a novelist with his dramatic flair, but the
Declaration actually goes on to explicitly state the King’s crimes against his
people. For example:

He has called together
legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the
depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into
compliance with his measures.

Authors
of English historicals can probably appreciate how radical it was to actually
call the King out by name. It just wasn’t done unless you wanted to find
yourself accused of treason. The signers of the Declaration were no less
cognizant of that. Every one of them knew they were signing their own death
sentence should the cause be lost.

Nevertheless,
sign they did, putting the official stamp on America’s break from England. What
followed was a long and bloody battle, more than five years of heavy fighting
with Americans receiving the worst of it - as one might imagine would happen
when a poorly organized military declares war against the most powerful
fighting force on the globe!